Expert Consultants

The structuring of these organisations is professional bureaucratic type". The rapid. advancement in technology and the knowledge explosion of recent times require the involvement of high level of specialised expertise in many sub-areas. Obviously, the services of expert specialists are costly. Even big organisations 

found it difficult to maintain the sources of all expert specialists required on a permanent basis. They prefer to hire their services for the specific job and duration. 

The power and authority in this structure rests with the operating set of core experts because they  have the critical skills required by the project. The required autonomy is provided to them and other area experts through decentralisation to make innovative use of their skills and expertise. The supporting staff, though a part of the structure, plays only the subordination role. The top management has to grant considerable degree of authority and autonomy to the operating core group. The core group and expert consults can be architects, structural designers, soil and foundation experts, services specialists, finance and accountancy specialists, planning and scheduling experts etc. 

The owner may constitute a core group in the organisation structure or may appoint a single consulting firm or a team of independent specialists consultants. The coordination and conflict resolution between various independent area experts will be-a major task of project administration. The typical structure of a consultant's organisation could be as shown in Figure. Each area expert is given the authority and responsibility for providing, supervising and executing the specified function only. The supporting staff, e.g. draftsman, computer operator, steno, account clerks etc. and other such supporting service providers report to several supervisor for different work segments. 

 Professional Bureaucratic Structure of a Consultancy Organisation